United States v. Thomas Everett Fairless, Jr.
Opinion
Opinion
Ferguson, J.
The United States appeals a judgment of the district court sentencing Thomas Everett Fairless to 30 months imprisonment. The government contends that the district court erred in departing downward from the applicable Sentencing Guideline range. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.
BACKGROUND
On March 8, 1991, defendant-appellee Thomas Fairless entered a bank wearing a ski mask and brandishing an unloaded nine-millimeter gun. Fairless ordered everyone but the bank tellers to he on the floor. He then approached each teller and ordered him or her to put money into a brown paper bag. Fairless left the bank with $10,-652.00. He was arrested in the parking lot of his apartment building shortly thereafter.
The Probation Department calculated Fairless’s base offense level as 20, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(a) (Nov.1990), and gave him a two-level increase because the bank qualified as a financial institution under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(1) (Nov.1990), a three-level increase for brandishing the gun during the robbery under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(2)(C) (Nov.1990), and a one-level increase for stealing more than $10,000 under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(6)(B) (Nov.1990), for a…